This invention relates generally to charging devices for rechargeable batteries, and more specifically to a desktop charger that has a data link to a computer or other data transfer interface.
Desktop chargers provide power to electronic devices, such as a cellular telephone. The charger typically couples a common power source, like a 120V, 60 Hz AC outlet, to the electronic device. The charger conductively connects to the electronic devices, either through a simple male-female plug interface or through the touching of conductive contacts, and selectively provides a current to the rechargeable battery of the electronic device. A properly designed charger will automatically provide the proper voltage and current to fully charge a particular battery per the manufacturer""s specifications.
Some desktop chargers have a computer platform that allows data communication with either the computer system of the device or the processor of the actual rechargeable battery. Such data transferred typically concerns the operational data for the battery, such as the charge parameter specification, and does not involve any non-functional data. Consequently, the computer platforms of chargers have minimal if any memory or data store because storage is not required for normal charging operation.
There are now many types of data files that are utilized for specialized applications, and many of the new file formats are for multimedia applications. One such format is MP3, which is a compression format used in the creation of music data files. MP3 files can be exchanged as regular data; however, the MP3 file requires specific hardware and software to be used in order to play the music contained in the data. Therefore, for a person to effectively transfer music through the use of MP3 files, a separate specialized device is typically used that can readily transfer MP3 files, and can then play the music contained therein, such as the Rio player of Diamond Multimedia.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a battery charger that has the ability to receive, store, and send data, particularly in multimedia format, where the usage of the multimedia format data would otherwise require a separate device.